Alhambra Apartments

Location

4500 Alhambra Drive

(East Davis, near the intersection of Alhambra Drive & Mace Blvd.)

Phone

(530) 297-7368

Website

http://www.alhambraatmaceranch.com/

Features

Affordable Housing units available

Central heat/air

Dishwasher

Exercise room

Pets allowed

Study room

Storage

Patio/balcony

Washer/dryer hookup

Pool

Laundry

Clubhouse

Play area

Alhambra Apartments offers one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom units ranging from $986/month [July 2007] to $1,424/month in five different floor plans [March 2005]. Apartments feature Kenmore kitchen appliances, walk-in closets, energy efficient water heaters, private exterior storage, private patios/balconies, and extra telephone lines — most units include a full size washer/dryer hook-up. The site is close to Unitrans A bus line & T bus line and has private garages available for an additional fee. This complex is managed by Jon Berkley Management, Inc.. They also have units that qualify for Section 8 Housing Vouchers.

In June 2004, Target submitted to the Davis Community Development Department a preliminary, conceptual plan for a Davis store at 2nd Street & Mace Boulevard, immediately south of Alhambra Apartments. The debate on whether to allow Target in Davis resulted in the city allowing Target to build a store at Second Street Crossing, near the old Frontier Fertilizer Superfund site. It opened for business in October 2009.

To learn more about rental housing within Davis, please visit our Housing Guide as well as our Apartments pages.

Comments:

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"I liked the apartment; they sometimes come with washers and dryers in the unit. I found the managers/repair man to be friendly, albeit weird. It's far away (out by Mace)."

2006-03-05 19:08:46   Nice apartment with balcony. If you pay an extra $40/mo you get a washer and dryer in your balcony closet which is very convenient. Management is not the most helpful, but they try. Lots of families live here, so there are kids running around in the afternoon. —JoannNguyen

2006-10-06 19:54:01   I have had a bad experience with the management at this apartment complex. Property was stolen from my apartment by either the managers, painters, or cleaners and the management was extremely insensitive and cold. They are very suspicious to me. I do not recommend living in these apartments! —GeorgiaKk

2007-02-22 17:20:45   The management decided at some point to stop accepting packages from UPS or FedEx for residents, but didn't bother to inform the residents of that. For people who work during normal business hours, this is a huge inconvenience. —ColleenParks

2007-12-18 22:42:19   I would STRONGLY discourage renting these apartments. The apartments are dirty, the staff is rude, and you will never get your full deposit back — even if they praised you for having the cleanliest apartment they've seen yet! If you are looking for a quality place to live, do not let these affordable prices fool you! —AggieAlum

2008-04-09 09:58:03   I've lived here for the past two and a half years and never really had problems with management. The maintenance guy, Steve, is pretty nice about fixing/replacing anything in the apartment. Theresa, the current manager, is definitely friendlier than the previous manager Sarah (not that I really had much of a problem with her either).

There's a lot of families/kids though since this is a low-income apartment unit, so if you're not down with kids screaming and running around in the afternoons (especially during the summer when they take over the small pool) then don't live here. —wootywoo

2009-07-16 15:56:45   I also had a bad experience with this place while looking for an apartment. I had to come back three times because noone was ever in the office. The leasing agent seemed not to care, tried to explain something to me while talking on her cell phone (personal call obviously) then The "Manager" was very rude and short with us. I would waste my time with management like that around —veronicasmall

2010-07-17 12:37:33   I was not a big fan of living here. The rent price is pretty darn good for a 2bd/2ba, but that's definitely negated by the bedroom sizes. It was not comfortable living in that small of a space, and I made the mistake of assuming I could. Interior walls are very thin, and the units were not well insulated. Neighbors are great though, and maintenance was promptly and properly taken care of. Unfortunately, we lost almost half of our deposit after three walk-throughs with the manager who informed us at move-out that the unit just needed a minor clean for turning. I was not happy with being lead astray like that. I ended up going back to my old complex, because the cost for the services there is just so much better. —Richard Atherton —RickJames

• This comment was left by someone who appears to have a vested interest in a competing business.
  

  Vested interest or not, it's fair frank talk about the experience while being a customer signed with a real name at the end... Daubert
  

2010-08-11 13:48:22   I don't really have any bad experiences with the management. Whenever I ask for repairs, they are very quickly done. They are always willing to help if you have any problems and talk through all the processes. For the apt complex itself, I like how it is nothing like apartment complexes full of college students who party and make noises and such every night. it is a very ideal place to spend quiet times and study. The neighborhood is very nice. also, the affordable housing program they have is great! some of the friends that I knew had a 4br apt before and I remember it was way cheaper than any other 2~3br apts around. Literally 5 mins walk to Target. Don't understand why it has such bad reviews.. —emily237

2012-01-10 13:02:21   I lived here for about two years and my overall experience was positive. It was the first apartment I ever lived in so I have no point of comparison. It took them about a month to come in and fix one of our toilets but we had two so it wasn't a dire situation. At least six times they either put a note on our door or in our mailbox that said we were going to be evicted if we didn't pay our rent in the next two days, etc. I always got my rent checks photocopied and signed so I would take my copy to the office and they informed me that the letters were actually for a tenant in a completely different building. That was super bizarre considering my apartment number was on an easily readable sign about an inch from my door where some of the notices were taped and my mailbox had my last name and apt number on it. Illiterate or apathetic, who knows? Other than that weirdness, the office staff were friendly. They keep your packages in the office which is nice unless you get home after the office has closed for the day. Finding a parking spot wasn't too difficult. I felt we got a fair amount of our safety deposit back. Close to the freeway. Nice place to live minus loud kids and parties. —LoriOrf

2012-05-30 11:34:15   This is by far the worst apartment complex I have EVER lived. We moved here because of the apartments in Davis it was not only the cheapest for what you got but it appeared to be newer and nicer than some of the others. However, After moving in (my sister and her boyfriend moved in the same weekend as us) we realized that they did not meet expectations. My sister's apartment was barely cleaned and had dark mold around all of the windows and doors. The carpet in my apartment was hard and crunchy and had stains on it. There had been a birds nest outside my door and when asking the apartment to take care of it they tore down the nest and left the mess of bird poop all over (its still there by the way..and we have two nests built in our hallway one of the stairs that are littered with bird poop and one on the fire alarm in the hallway) They randomly turn off water in apartments without notifying. They send tons of notices about things but never actually take care of anything. The do not enforce rules on animals (I have a dog) and due to it my dog got attacked by a pitbull from the neighbor below me who didn't want her dog anymore and just put him the hallway trying to make him runaway. My apartment has mold all over the windows and doors and ceiling in the bathroom again. I have also had to scream at neighbors for having parties until 4am in the morning where people were all over the hallways and playing music so loud my apartment shook. Its like living in a dorm.

The office staff is rude. They sent us a notice in February (we moved in September 5th) asking us if we would be returning...a full 6-8 months before our lease was supposed to be up (pretty sure this is actually illegal...and considering they have not REALLY followed up on renting our apartment I feel backed by that)

Dont live here. We lived in another complex when we first moved here and although the cost went up for the second year forcing us to move...we never had any issues there. Look around and find some place better. Its too expensive for what they offer. —RachelLanyi

2013-05-15 09:10:53   Well, I can honestly say that in my last year in Davis I could not be happier to be moving. Like many UCD students, I moved almost every year to a different apartment and while I have had very interesting experiences at other complexes, none could rival the overall disappointment and general negativity associated with this place.

Pros:
-Cheapest rent I've seen in Davis. Period. (not worth it)
-Target is right next door.

Other than that, this complex has been a nightmare from the beginning. Luckily, the management got rid of the rude receptionist that they initially had who was just overall unprofessional. I had asked for the dimensions of the rooms 3 separate times before finally giving up. I didn't find this question unreasonable since my housemates would be sharing a room and needed to know if it was possible, plus, most other apartments complexes have this information ready.

But, the funniest/worst part was that when my roommate and I went to check out the place for the second time (after only writing our names on pieces of paper, she didn't check ID's or anything like that) she decided she didn't want to walk to show us the apartment so instead she gave up a map, showed us where it was at, and gave me the master key. Maybe I seem like a trustworthy person, and I am, but she didn't know that and I could have easily written a fake name on those papers and I would have had the master key to the complex: such a problem.

These should have been huge red flags but the price proved too tempting and we signed a holding deposit. Fast forward to the week before move-in day: management calls me a week and a half before we were scheduled to move in to tell me that they didn't have all the required documents for us to move in and as a result we wouldn't be able to move in on our set date. Not only were they so unorganized that they didn't realize this until the week before, but we also found out that it was half of the complex they were doing this too.

My roommates and I did everything we could to get our information into them by the date and we submitted everything a few days before; no easy feat, considering none of us were within 2 hours of Davis during this time, one housemate was in China! Long story short, we had to wait a week before we could finally move in. It turns out that the management had made a mistake concerning Section 8 Affordable Housing requirements for the apartment complex=the mistake was completely and 100% their fault. (Granted, they did fully reimburse my housemate for staying in a hotel for that week.)

Upon moving in here I had stopped sleeping in until noon and started waking up anywhere from 8:30-10: not unreasonable considering I'm a college student with no responsibilities before 10 am. But, apparently Alhambra has a problem with this because they consistently perform regular maintenance beginning at 8 AM (e.g. mowing the lawn, trimming the weeks, etc.).

Usually, I would just look past that and get over it but, in preparation for the new leasing year, they have been doing extra work. Two weeks ago I woke up at 8:15 am to a loud, banging/hammering noise on my window. They were changing the baseboards around the windows with NO notice. If I would have known, I might have been less angry, but that was unreasonable.

What prompted me to write this review (i.e. the last straw) was the fact that I was jolted awake at 8:05 this morning to someone making loud noises outside my window and shouting at other people who were shouting back. Then I realized it was the maintenance staff painting my building and more specifically my window and the window right about mine. He proceeded to sing/shout drunkenly while painting the windows. Normally, I would think this was hilarious but at 8 am on my only day off, it's just....not so much.

Also, the apartments themselves are just mediocre. The bathrooms and sinks were all crusted and rusted over with calcium stains and everything else when we moved in. Not clean conditions.

We also had a mice problem upon moving in. If we had mice towards the end of the year, I could see how it could be the product of a messy environment but when you just moved in, it's hard to argue this. Plus, I've seen plenty of potato bugs (one of the other reviewers said to do this, but seriously, GOOGLE that. It's creepy as....).

I've lived in other apartment complexes (e.g. Allegre and Lakeshore) and have spent countless hours at friends' apartments in other complexes and can honestly say I recommend ANY other place over this one.

TL;DR: If you're considering moving here, DON'T. It's cheap, but there are other cheap options without the headache. If you plan to move here, also plan to move in a few days after the agreed upon move-in date and deal with loud noises at 8 in the morning AT LEAST once a week. —JocelynM